A church youth group meeting comes to a horrifying halt when men bust in blind and bound the children and throw them into a van. But it was all staged by church leaders.

While at least one child was injured and traumatized, those leaders say they stand behind their "lesson."

Church leaders say this was a learning exercise designed to teach about religious freedom. But one girl was so shaken up that her parents have now gone to police.

A seventh grader is still traumatized, emotionally and physically, by a church youth group meeting Wednesday night at Glad Tidings Assembly of God in Lower Swatara Township.

She had no idea what she was in for as she quickly went from enjoying herself to fearing for her life. Masked men stormed into their meeting and demanded the group of about a dozen kids get on the ground.

Then, while still bound and blinded, the kids were forced outside and into a van. It drove for a bit and then the kids ended up in the basement of a home on church property.

She says the pastor came out bloody, but Pastor John Lanes wasn't a victim, in fact he was a leader in what turned out to be a staged abduction to teach children about religious persecution.

Youth group leader Andrew Jordan says the exercise was never meant to horrify.

Pastor Lanza says moving forward they will notify parents first. but he won't stop doing it. He says the lesson is too important.

But for this seventh grader, that lesson left her bruised and with a different view of the church, saying she doesn’t trust them.

Police will only say they are aware of the incident and are investigating. We should point out the church says other children knew this was staged and say they did find the exercise beneficial.

She says the pastor came out bloody, but Pastor John Lanes wasn't a victim, in fact he was a leader in what turned out to be a staged abduction to teach children about religious persecution.

What, exactly, was this supposed to teach about religious persecution? I remember reading a book about dog training. It gave the example of coming into the room and finding your dog on the couch, so you yell at him. Does that teach the dog not to sleep on the couch? No. He was perfectly happy and comfortable sleeping on the couch. He only had a problem when you came into the room and started yelling at him. So you haven't taught him that sleeping on the couch is wrong; all you've taught him is to make himself scarce when the humans come into the room.

The lesson here is that what you think you're teaching and what the student perceives are two different things, and that teaching is best left to professionals who know what they're doing. All this pastor taught is that adults that the children trusted are irrational maniacs who can't be trusted anymore.

When I first read this I assumed that it was some kind of early April Fools joke. I searched the interwebs but it does seem to be true. Unfuckingbelievable. One of them had an AK-47, unloaded but how would the kids know that? What goes through the mind of some one who thinks that kidnapping kids, traumatising them and in at least one instance injuring, is good idea? Do they have minds?

At least the adults will discover a little bit about persecution, when they have to share a cell with a big hairy biker called Mary.

My kid would have used Aikido (which was taught by a instructor) and a few "adults" would have been going to get their arms relocated and after I heard of it, ya that asshole would be getting a visit from ME.

What point were they trying to make again? I know a lot of fundie Christians have a persecution complex, but the chance of anything like this happening are pretty low seeing as Christians are a majority in the United States. Here's to hoping the pastor gets thrown in jail for traumatizing children. As a side note, I find it funny that some of them seem to think the gays are after their children when they really should be worrying about their fellow fundies.